Schools Reopening?

[Liveforever86]

When do you honestly think it will happen? And when do you want it to happen?!

On line teaching is no substitute may I add!

It truly isn't, many students are struggling to follow the lessons, have wifi or technical difficulties, do not understand or can not hear what I saying, many do not have the equipment set up properly or at all. Prep is sporadic and patchy. The children seem to be tuning out often, or distracted or simply not logging in. That is without the loss of social interaction and the support school offers. Not to mention the lack of good nutrition and sports.

I can not stress enough how lacking the on line learning facility actually is when one compares it to the school environment, and that is for the children that have access! There will be millions and millions more that are being left in front of the TV every day without lunch or dinner, and no on line learning set up whatsoever for six months and counting.

Your posts are seem very selfish and really you do not care for the children you are responsible for at all if your outlook is favourable to an autumn reopening.

I despair at this thread, really I do. It is shocking, and one can only hope there won't be too many parents reading it. The DM would love it!

Cornish, that is deeply insulting.

It is not my fault that I have a life-long disease that, while it normally causes no issues with my (excellent) work in the classroom and out, has led to me being told that I cannot safely work in school at the moment.

It is not my colleagues' fault that they have cancer, have had cancer, have had other serious ongoing health conditions that lead to them being unable to work in school at the moment.

All of us, without exception, would prefer to be in school. All of us, without exception, are working hard at home to support all our pupils at the moment.

I am just emphasising that a return to school is not risk free, and that risks and benefits have to be weighed against each other.

I have repeatedly said that i believe we will return to school in late June or early July for deliberate infection and creation of an artificial disease spike. However, if conditions in our hospitals mean we cannot, as a country, accommodate that disease peak, we won't. Not because it would not be of benefit EDUCATIONALLY - of course being in school today would be better educationally, nobody denies that - but because life and health of society as a whole is currently the over-riding concern.

Do you have security at your school?

@cornishdreams1 Yes we do, though very thin on the ground at the moment due to illness/isolation; my school is in a very densely populated area and we seem to have many cases. Your neice's school sounds in a similar area.

With respect, if you are teaching in a very different environment it can be tricky to understand the ramifications of huge classes. What subject/s do you teach? Luckily, I teach 3 subjects so although I'm stuck at home for the next 12 weeks, I still feel that I can 'do my bit' at home if you know what I mean. I'm still able to mentor my most vulnerable pupils too, albeit online, I still feel that's better than nothing.

Oh do stop can't there isn't a school in the land, I doubt in the world that would expect teachers with serious medical illness or proven chronic illness to work at any time, much less in the middle of the pandemic!!
You are doing yourself not favours by posting hysterical posts. Those that find themselves in bad health receive the utmost care and support in our school, as you would expect whether we are in a middle of a pandemic or not, but that should not stop healthy teachers returning to work full time in June!

I think there would be an issue with cancelling the summer holidays. If things improve enough to open schools, we will probably also be in a position where people can travel again. Many families will already have booked holidays for the summer and would probably take these. Attendance would be poor. I think it would be better for all the children to start again in September than having different children in and out over the summer holidays.

Harry There are huge differences, and my niece newly appointed eighteen months ago is feeling burnt out already.

The staff turnover is exceptionally high, and no one stays for long. The longest serving staff member has made to the five year mark. I have seen the ambitious, young, vibrant young lady steadily become a shadow of herself. In fact I believe she is becoming clinically depressed, She will be working every day over the holidays supporting the school. I can totally appreciate that the arrangements are going to be very different, and I say this honestly and in a heartfelt way, that the staff in those schools are the true heroes in our society. Unsung heroes that are putting their own safety on the line every single morning.

Every time I get a text from my sister I wonder if this will be the one that tells me something has happened to my niece, every time without fail, because the things that she tells me are truly horrific, and gives me reason to truly believe her safety is constantly hanging in the balance. So without a doubt, security measures must be considered before any school opens fully, in some areas this is essential.

And to think she embraced the role wholeheartedly to make a difference, and she is making a difference on some levels, but the personal cost to her, and to the family are very high.

We all know that the state system would buckle overnight should independent schools be forced to close, increasing the workload on everyone in the state sector. Maybe the rich, the powerful and the influential will then ensure that the state sector is properly funded. Might be worth the disruption in the long run.

If returning in September is "fake news," Cornish, so too is your repeated assertion that it could be June.
Frankly, it could be any time at all; the point is, none of us has any idea. As soon as we are told to re-open the premises properly, we will switch back to more normal working practices. Until then, we will continue to do the best we can for our children, whatever their varied circumstances.

I have had it on good authority today from someone senior in the Civil Service, that schools will not reopen until at the very earliest September and that nobody will be going on holiday until after that either.

Which department?

Until recently I was a senior civil servant. (SCS2). The SCS, as well as being in the main brilliant and hardworking is rife with rumour and gossip and many best guesses based on an interpretation of what someone else’s friend heard a minister say in passing. In the absence of clarity and certainty senior civil servants do their best to lead based on partial (in both senses) information and adapting to changing operational and political directions.

I know many people senior in the civil service. All they truly know is that everyone is currently operating in a range of scenarios and there is no certainty.

Every time I get a text from my sister I wonder if this will be the one that tells me something has happened to my niece, every time without fail, because the things that she tells me are truly horrific, and gives me reason to truly believe her safety is constantly hanging in the balance. So without a doubt, security measures must be considered before any school opens fully, in some areas this is essential.

And to think she embraced the role wholeheartedly to make a difference, and she is making a difference on some levels, but the personal cost to her, and to the family are very high.

Sadly, this is not an unusual situation. I am barely the person I was when I started teaching 10 years ago. Every day I wonder if this will the 'the' day when a pupil or parent does some permanent physical damage and I'm afraid that's not an exaggeration. But, sometimes, there are those pupils that you really break down the barriers with, that you really get through to and are able to help them make the right choices, as well as learn.

Anyway, I digress. God knows how this awful situation will play out. I suppose we can all just hope that we get through it with as little damage to everyone and everything as possible.

I have had it on good authority today from someone senior in the Civil Service, that schools will not reopen until at the very earliest September and that nobody will be going on holiday until after that either

Senior in the Civil Service? What does that mean exactly?
A friend who is senior in the Home Office has no idea.

I would say Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and Michael Gove are fairly high up in the Civil Service (if you count government in that) and even they have no idea when schools will re-open.

I want to be hopeful. I want everyone to have hope. However looking at the figures, and without a vaccine, would anyone really want children back in school? Even if the figure of 0.2% is the death rate of 10-18 yr olds, if we accept that without a vaccine we will all catch it, who is prepared to accept that level of risk for children? Isn't it something like 27,880 children that could die in the UK based on this data? And that's assuming that all 0-9s catch it and none die at all.

What about the much higher numbers of adults in schools and hospitals who are more at risk that those at home all day. Teachers, nhs staff and all those making the country bearable at this time are taking a considerable personal risk and for their own families. It is selfless and honourable. Others on here can minimise the risk, in their own minds if it makes you feel more comfortable. Without a vaccine won't this just perpetuate? If you really want things to return to normal, and have schools open asap, how will you keep the death rate below 500,000 until the vaccine arrives?

We’re about a year away from a vaccine though. You can’t shut down schools and the economy for that long. The government just won’t do it.

If the schools in Italy reopen in May then I think if we can get some staggered opening in mid June then that is more likely.

Most children will get this mildly or be asymptomatic. They’ll be safer going back in the summer than they were the week before the schools closed when cases were on the rise.

Unfortunately we can’t all stay locked away for a year until there’s a vaccine.

Even if the figure of 0.2% is the death rate of 10-18 yr olds, if we accept that without a vaccine we will all catch it, who is prepared to accept that level of risk for children?

No one will say it out loud, but after 12 weeks people will quietly look the other way, sadly.

Interesting discussion on 5Live now.

Saying we must think of an exit strategy and we can’t keep everything shut down even until June.

I have had it on good authority today from someone senior in the Civil Service,

I have it on good authority from someone senior in the civil service that the situation is still very fluid and nobody actually knows how this is going to pan out.

I also know that someone senior in the civil service wouldn’t be so stupid as to discuss what are effectively state secrets with someone who would be silly enough to blab it on MN.

Even if the figure of 0.2% is the death rate of 10-18 yr olds, if we accept that without a vaccine we will all catch it, who is prepared to accept that level of risk for children?
No one will say it out loud, but after 12 weeks people will quietly look the other way, sadly

God really? I wouldn’t.

The government won’t act sooner because private parents are not wanting to pay.

God really? I wouldn’t

I know this is coming from a truthful place but the unavoidable truth is that nearly all of us make decisions every day that place our own financial comfort over preventing the deaths of children we don’t know.

I have a few direct debits going to various charities but I don’t (for example) donate everything I earn over a basic subsistence level to support children without enough to eat.

That’s great that you can rationalise it like that Carlotta.

I don’t see it that way at all.

I wouldn't be sending mine in as wouldn't want to put them, their teachers or the elderly at risk here but can imagine a lot would. Almost all the children were in up until school closed though then the risk was a lot lower.

I’m not really rationalising anything and don’t particularly want the schools back. I’m just observing that the idea that people don’t put their own finances over children’s lives is demonstrably false.

Sometimes.

But the news of the 13 year old child who died from CV without family around him at Kings struck me as something I’d want to avoid for any other school child.